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chapter 1 “Kelea-nui-noho-‘ana-‘api‘api” (1865) Samuel Mânaiakalani Kamakau 1815–1876 Samuel Mânaiakalani Kamakau is one of several native historians whose invaluable writings have preserved much Hawaiian history during a period of dramatic change. Learned in the traditional Hawaiian culture into which he was born and the new Western education that arrived with the missionaries in 1820, Kamakau began actively to record native history beginning in the 1830s under the guidance of the missionary Sheldon Dibble at Lahainaluna School on Maui. His publications, predominantly appearing in Hawaiian-language newspapers, include Ruling Chiefs of Hawaii (1961), Ka Po‘e Kahiko: The People of Old (1964), The Works of the People of Old: Nâ Hana a ka Po‘e Kahiko (1976), and Tales and Traditions of the People of Old: Nâ Mo‘olelo a ka Po‘e Kahiko (1991). Along with his work as historian, Kamakau taught at Lahainaluna and served several terms in the Hawaiian legislature. The story of Kelea is among the most well known, and most often repeated, Hawaiian legends connected with surfriding. It first appears in English in Abraham Fornander’s An Account of the Polynesian Race (1878), the outline of which is based upon the present version by Kamakau. The story surfaces ten years later in The Legends and Myths of Hawai‘i: The Fables and Folk-lore of a Strange People by King David Kalâkaua and Rollin M. Daggett, then again in 1900 in Charles M. Skinner ’s Myths & Legends of Our New Possessions & Protectorate and in Alexander Twombley’s novel Kelea: The Surf-Rider: A Romance of Pagan Hawaii. Cora Wells Thorpe picks up the legend once more in In the Path of the Tradewinds (1924), as does the Hawaiian Almanac and Annual (1931). Part of the reason for the legend’s popularity is Kelea herself, a strong and beautiful figure whose skill in the surf is only matched by her willfulness on land. ke l e a -n u i -n o h o -‘a n a -‘a p i ‘a p i was a beautiful chiefess with clear skin and sparkling eyes. Her hair fluttered like the wings of the ka‘upu 19 bird, and so she was called Kelea-nui-noho-‘ana-‘api‘api, Great-KeleaWho -Flutters. She was the sister of Kawaukaohele [Kawaokaohele], the mò‘î of Maui.* Surfing was her greatest pleasure. She lived at Hamakuapoko and Kekaha and at Wailuku, surf riding with all the chiefs. When Lò Lale was the chief of Lîhu‘e on O‘ahu, he sent some chiefs on a search for a wife for himself. The canoe expedition in search of a wife set out from Wai‘alua, circled Moloka‘i without finding a wife, circled Lana‘i without finding a wife, and set out to circle Maui in search of a wife. When the chiefs reached Hana, they heard of Kelea, the beautiful chiefess who was the sister of Kawaokaohele. She was living at Hamakuapoko because of the surf riding there, reveling in the curling breakers of the midmorning when the sea was smooth and even. She enjoyed surfing so much that at night she dwelt upon the morrow’s surfing and awakened to the murmuring of the sea to take up her board. The early morning, too, was delightful because of its coolness, and so she might go at dawn. When the wife seekers heard these words about Kelea, they decided to obtain her as wife for their master and quickly got ready to leave Hana. The kama‘aina** residents tried to make them stay a little longer, but they would not listen. When they drew close to Hamakuapoko, they saw many people ashore, and when Kelea saw them her countenance faded at being seen by these strangers, and her heart throbbed. But she heeded their voices inviting her to board the canoe and showed herself to be the unsurpassed one of east Maui. The men said, “O Chiefess, ride ashore on the canoe.” She agreed—perhaps because of the glance of one of them. They were all “soaring ‘iwa birds,” constantly moving on the shifting billows of the ocean, bronzed and reddened of cheek by high seas. The chiefess did not know that this was a “wife-snatching” canoe, he wa‘a ka‘ili wahine. The first time, they rode a wave ashore, and a second time, they rode a wave ashore, but the third time, there was a dashing away to vanish at sea...

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